Six Feet Under and I have a history. Cancellations, rescheduled dates, shows that never came together. So watching them actually take the stage at The Gramercy Theatre on July 14 carried a specific kind of satisfaction that goes beyond just showing up to a death metal show. The Decades in the Grave Tour delivered, and it delivered on time and with care.

Wormhole opened the night. I came in with little familiarity with the band, but the Baltimore, Maryland, slammers handled the opener slot with the kind of focused brutality that made me pay attention. They hit the stage hard and set the tone for everything that followed.

Kataklysm stepped up next and brought genuine Canadian energy. The band noted from the stage that this marked nearly 20 years since they last toured with Six Feet Under, and you could feel their excitement in the way they played. Their hour ong set was full of bangers. Fourteen songs, no wasted space, the set moving from “Push the Venom” through “The Black Sheep” with the kind of relentless momentum that Death Metal does better than almost anyone. “Goliath,” “In Shadows and Dust,” and “Bringer of Vengeance” all landed like a hammer. They never disappoint me.

Then Six Feet Under took the stage and the night became something personal.

Chris Barnes fronted the band with the low, grinding authority that has defined his vocal identity for decades. But the moment that made the room feel different, at least for anyone who has been following this music since the Nineties, was Jack Owen standing on that stage alongside him. Owen and Barnes shared years in Cannibal Corpse through the Eighties and Nineties, and seeing them locked back in together for my first time on a Gramercy stage in 2026 hit with a specific weight that does not require an explanation. (I wasn’t aware of Cannibal until the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective movie, like a lot of folks)

Behind the kit, new drummer Ruston Grosse, formerly of Master and Rumplestiltskin Grinder among others, settled in alongside the band following the departure of long-time drummer Marco Pitruzzella. Grosse held everything together with authority and gave the set a physical foundation that never wavered.

The setlist ran deep, “War Is Coming” through “Beneath a Black Sky” pulling from across the band’s catalog before the closing stretch made its intentions clear. The Holocaust cover “Death or Glory” gave the set an unexpected turn, and then “Stripped, Raped and Strangled” and “Hammer Smashed Face” closed the night as a direct nod to the Cannibal Corpse catalog Barnes helped build. With Owen on stage delivering those songs alongside him, the moment landed as something more than a cover. It was a reunion of a specific kind, played loud, played straight, and received by a room that knew exactly what it was watching.

Six Feet Under finally made it. Worth every prior cancellation.

Six Feet Under setlist (setlist from setlist.fm)
War Is Coming
Silent Violence
Revenge of the Zombie
Lycanthropy
Torn to the Bone
Feasting on the Blood of the Insane
Victim of the Paranoid
Seed of Filth
Death or Glory (Holocaust cover)
Know-Nothing Ingrate
Mister Blood and Guts
Ghosts of the Undead
Human Target
Beneath a Black Sky
Stripped, Raped and Strangled (Cannibal Corpse cover)
Hammer Smashed Face (Cannibal Corpse cover)